Learning…and the Olympics!

Does your family “get into” the Olympics?? We do! Especially when it is hosted by Canada!

Ever since the kids were little, we would take these 2 weeks to share in the moment with the Olympians. What a great opportunity to learn about so many things…different sports the kids may not have heard about before, learning about the host country and of course cheering on our favourites!

We always start with a chart and fill in the countries we want to follow. We choose Canada (of course), add in the host country, as well as Ukraine (my brother-in-law and family are missionaries there)…then any other country we think will be cool to watch. One year we added Portugal as a number of our kids’ friends had family there. This is a great chance to talk about the various countries (including geography, politics etc.), how many athletes represent each country…and discuss why some countries have more athletes than others. (We were surprised this year by how many “warm” countries had athletes in the winter olympics!) And finally, we keep tabs on all the medals earned by each country. Wow…that is a lot of learning, isn’t it?

This year has been excellent to watch…Canada getting their first Gold as a host country…and much more excitement to come! And with the online coverage and so many people using facebook and twitter, it is like we are all in the same room cheering on our team! Go Canada Go!

What do you do during the Olympics? Is it something you and your family share together? Share your traditions with the rest of us. If not, I encourage you to sit down as a family and share the moment…I don’t think you will regret it!